SAK Environmental helped a client bring a 30-year remediation effort to closure using our technical expertise in hydrogeology and taking advantage of recent regulations in Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) recovery oil recovery.
For over 30-years, a 106-unit residential condominium association was saddled with the environmental cleanup from an historic petroleum distribution terminal. The coastal location became prime real estate for redevelopment in the mid-1980s and the residential association under-estimated the risk at that time - a time before protective due diligence laws and industry practices were in place. Extensive remediation occurred over three decades that included recovery of separate phase oil in the subsurface, soil vapor venting, and groundwater remediation and treatment. Significant progress was made, but previous contractors were reluctant to close-out the Site.
Rather than blindly continue the expensive remediation systems, SAK completed a deep-dive on current data and determined that residual oil product may not be feasible to recovery. The first step was graphing water quality and LNAPL trend graphs on almost 30-years of data - not done before. We then performed oil recovery transmissivity testing to determine if, in fact, remaining oil was readily recoverable. The answer was no! Because oil thicknesses ebbed and flowed with the local ocean tidal influence, making impactful recovery infeasible.
A comprehensive human health risk characterization and ecological risk assessment of groundwater, soil, surface water, and indoor air concluded that conditions were safe without further remediation, provided a deed restriction was in place on the 5-acre parcel, which simply notified new owners of site conditions and required any contractors to responsibly manage excavated materials.
SAK's work ended a huge financial burden for the Association and provided certainty to future real estate transactions.
